Justice For My Sister Screening and Q&A with Director

Events; film

Free Event Open to All!

Justice For My Sister

Films Screening and Q&A with the director Kimberly Bautista!

Thursday, October 31 from 5:15-7:30UA Center for Creative Photography

Film Synopsis: Adela, 27, left home for work one day and never returned. Her ex-boyfriend beat her until she was unrecognizable and left her at the side of the road. Her story is all too familiar in Guatemala, where 6,000 women have been murdered in the last decade. Only 2% of those killers have been sentenced. Adela's sister Rebeca, 34, is determined to see that Adela's killer is held accountable. She makes tortillas at home and sells them in order to raise her five children, as well as the three children Adela left behind.

The challenges Rebeca encounters in her search for justice are illustrative of the thousands of other cases like this one in Guatemala. However, her willingness to practically take on the role of investigator while she is still mourning is exceptional. She encounters many setbacks during her three-year battle: a missing police report, a judge accused of killing his own wife, and witnesses who are too afraid to testify. Completely transformed by her struggle, Rebeca emerges as a feminist leader in her rural community with a message for others: justice is possible.

Kimberly Bautista is a Los Angeles-based Colombian and Irish-American filmmaker. She was a Princess Grace Award recipient in 2008 and a Latino Producers Academy Fellow in 2010. She was also the recipient of the prestigious yearlong Latino Artists Mentorship from the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) in 2010. Kimberly’s debut feature-length documentary film, JUSTICE FOR MY SISTER, was a finalist for the 2010 HBO-NALIP Documentary Cash Award in its rough cut state.

In 2006, Kimberly founded and directed the Intercultural Web Exchange, a video pen-pal web program between young women in Quito, Ecuador and young Chicana women in Pomona, California. The project lasted over three years and culminated in a college prep opportunity for the participants. She has been doing media arts work in Guatemala since 2008, looking at the effects of the 36-year internal conflict. Kimberly holds a Master’s in Social Documentation from UC Santa Cruz.